The truth about a complex built for veterans and the middle class and how it has evolved through the years to become one of the more interesting and controversial of New York stories.

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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bloomberg and the Soda Ban

When is this little dictator's reign over? Or will he maneuver the City Council to allow a fourth term for him?
I rarely drink soda, and when I do would prefer a small size, but for people who do drink soda, this new law will just have them purchasing smaller bottles to make up for what they crave, creating more waste and more expenditure for the poor and middle classes. Many fruit juices contain more sugar than sodas anyway. Wine and beer also up one's pounds. Should there be a limitation put on them, too?
How about combating obesity by building more city gyms, available at low cost to residents, and instituting more exercise and sports programs in our city schools?
And if Bloomberg is so interested in creating a nanny state, why not first "nannify" the tenant issue and mandate affordable housing for the middle class in the city and in Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village?

UPDATE: So Bloomberg follows this soda ban proposal by celebrating National Donut Day! Here's the BS response from Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs when queried by a reporter about the conflict (ie.,hypocrisy):

In case you have difficulty hearing her response, it's:

"The work of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reflects the mayor’s public health agenda. The message is that we will do what we need in our official capacity to protect the health of New Yorkers. The celebratory events, the naming days in honor of individuals or items, or frivolities that are fun and exceptional joy are quite distinct from a public health agenda."

Got that? So celebrating the donut is not encouraging anyone to eat it.

Oh, and how will National Donut Day be celebrated in New York? By the eating of free donuts!!! (BTW, one donut has way more calories than one can of soda.)

From USA Today Online: In celebration of National Donut Day, tomorrow Krispy Kreme will be offering one free doughnut to anyone who walks in the door. No purchase is necessary to take part in the promotion. Elsewhere, Dunkin Donuts is offering a free donut with a beverage purchase. LaMar's Donuts also is advertising free treats, and Tim Hortons is giving away doughnuts to those with Facebook coupons. Entenmann's will mark the holiday by unveiling the "largest box of Entenmann's Donuts ever created," along with a $25,000 donation to The Salvation Army. Free coffee and doughnuts will be available in New York's Madison Square Park.

36 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I'm a high school teacher who works with students who LOVE sugary drinks of all kinds. Recently, a store opened up across the street from the school (basically a glorified dollar store) that sells gigantic bottled beverages- 64oz. Since this store opened, many students go there during lunch and purchase lots of those beverages. Sometimes, it is all they have for lunch. They have no self-control and drink all of it. I would love to see those cheap, gigantic drinks banned to save my students from getting health problems in the future. Now you may think, "hey, you're a teacher, this type of stuff should be taught to the youth". Oh trust me, it is. I personally teach about the effects of diabetes and what happens to a person who consumes too much sugar over the course of a lifetime. They still crave the sugary stuff, and still eat as much as they want. And so do their parents, who provide it at home. By banning the larger size, people will drink smaller amounts of these super sugary drinks and help with the obesity & diabetes epidemics of our youth.

Add to that list bullying of our children in City run schools. Nothing is being done about that and another child just committed suicide this week. Bloomie would probably tell us it was induced by a sugar high...

I also find it interesting that Mayor Anti-Everything still allows the sale of cartons of cigarettes in the city. He upped the tax. He's banned smoking in many outdoor spaces yet he still allows people to buy 10 packs at a time without his paternal intervention. Is he a tobacco investor, hooked on the tax revenue or has he just not gotten to that yet?

I am SO sick of this meglamaniac and his cronies trying to control what we eat and drink. Who the hell do they think they are! Bloomberg breaks the laws all the time! He flies his damned helicopter in and out of the heliport illegally, subjecting people to noise and pollution; he overturns term limits which was voted for twice by the people; me makes dirty undercover deals on the taxi trade. God, please make this vile little psycho go away and take all his corrupt-to-the core cronies with him. As they say in Ireland: May they go out with the tide and bad weather and never come back!

Bloomberg doesn't want us to have any sugary drink that is taller than himself. Personally, I would ban short, narcissistic men with high-pitched whiney voices who made a pot of money and use it to buy illegal terms in office, overturn laws and bring in cronies (like an addled old drunk with no public education experience) to run the Public Schools which he has royally fucked up. Do we know anybody who fits that description? If so, run him out of town!

One thing Bloomberg is teaching our children is that democracy doesn't matter any more. One rich man can set himself up as dictator, pay a lot of lackeys, pull in his pals and make The People do his bidding. Bloomberg may have been bullied as a kid because he's a skinny little runt and now he's a rich old man he is getting a sort of revenge. Get him to a shrink. Quickly!

It's an unenforceable law because they're going to allow large drinks of diet soda or club soda, so vendors can simply put the sugared version into the cups. What are the cops going to do ?, walk around tasting or testing everyone's drink ? Give me a break. Plus, the city will be sued by the beverage industry and they'll tie this up in the courts.

I am sick of Bloomberg's social engineering. This man has an agenda and the last thing he cares about is the well being of New Yorkers. From his fanatical crackdown on tobacco users to his forcing bike lanes on us so vehicular traffic is congested so one or two bikes a day can have a lane all to itself, his destruction of the old neighborhoods, driving out smalll businesses for his fucking money-grubbing developer cronies, I am so sick of this man that you would not print how I REALLY feel!

This is Bloomberg's way of "wagging the dog." This nonsense about soda size is to avert attention from the more egregious failures of his incompetent purchased and illegal third term, such as the uptick in filth, crime, homelessness, joblessness, child abuse and general lawlessness and quality of life issues, while at the same time he and his corrupt corporate cronies get richer and more and more destructive of everything that they don't hold dear in the form of the suburbanization of New York, corporatization of the schools and everything else they can get their dirty, greedy hands on. The sooner this apology for a man has waddled back to Boston, the better.

I have lived in New York City my whole 60 plus years life and I have never known such an embarrassment of a mayor. Please go away Bloomberg! You are making us so ashamed to be New Yorkers! You are a bad joke !you are really embarressing us ini the eyes of the world! We are cringing with shame at your capers.

I never voted for Bloomberg ever and he got his third term because Christine Quinn, the political whore of political whores, and the filth on the City Council allowed him to overturn term limits that had been voted for twice by the electorate. He outspent Bill Thompson because he is a billionaire and still won by only a slight margin. As for the size of sodas, I don't think it's anybody's business if people want to buy it by the bucket. I don't drink soda, but I think anybody who wants to should be able to buy it in any size available and that what that is should not be dictated by a napoleonic little jerk who has no business trying to make up laws at whim.

Interestingly, under Der Fuhrer's proposed edict a bodega selling a giant sized soda would be breaking the law and subject to a fine, bit 711 wouldn't. More warfare against the Mom and Pop stores that Bloomberg disdains in favor of corporate owned businesses.

I bet Adam Rose is grateful for the mayor's latest public brainfart because while we are bitching about Bloomberg on here, we are leaving him alone! Enjoy it while you can, Adam because there's always tomorrow! LOL!

Correct me if I am wrong, but when the T&V did their post analysis of PCVST voting patterns of the least three mayor elections, Bloomberg won the PCVST % in all three. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." And third is definitely not the charm. If the Son of Sam has made parole and if he had run for mayor last time, I would have voted for him as opposed to the Emperor of Bermuda.

So Bloombucks will overturn term limits again? why not? what's to stop him...

Indeed, what's to stop him? It's not like we are living in a free country or a democracy any more. That is nostalgic history at this point. If he can suck enough you-know-what, will definitely buy himself a fourth term. With his money, he can buy all the suck available out there.

Big difference between rules set for the common good in a privately owned residential community which rents units to diverse tenants and rules dictated by government concerning personal choice pertaining to personal habits. It's one thing for government to set, for instance, a speed limit on the streets and quite another for it to tell you what you may or may not eat or drink and in whatever sizes you wish to consume what you eat and drink. The large soda rule is stupid and unenforceable. It also will result in more garbage for the landfills because people who like to drink a lot of soda will purchase more containers of it. However, the city will pull in more tax revenue on the sale of extra units of the stuff. I suspect that Bloomberg's nannying has a lot to do with the fact that he is only concerned with money and not with the health and wellbeing of his "subjects."

Courtesy of a link from Andrews Sullivan’s blog, I think this is a great article on our little dictator:

“To Bloomberg, it’s all in good fun. Shoving fat, salt, and white bread down your throat is a circus act, to be gawked at and celebrated on TV. But soda? That’s a health threat requiring government-enforced portion control. You can have it one way or the other, Mr. Mayor. You can preach moderation or the right to stuff yourself. But you can’t do both. The next orgy is four weeks away. We’ll be watching you.”

If Emperor Bloomberg would just get his priorities straight for once. How about he cracks down on ACS. It seems that almost every day we are hearing about horribly abused children, e.g, Nixmarie Brown, Marchella Bret Pierce and many, many others who ACS allows them to stay with "parents," even though those "parents" torture, beat and starve them to death. It makes me so angry and sick to my stomach that this asshole of a Mayor has nothing to say about these kids and there are so many of them who just haven't been brought to the public's attention yet, but he is so keen on trimming the waistlines of New Yorkers that he cannot see beyond that. I will be proud to be a New Yorker when the Marchellas and Nixmaries are no longer being ignored by Bloomberg and his useless ACS agency and dictating the size of sugary drinks is a non-issue. Give me a kid who is fat, but has a chance to learn how to change his/her eating habits over a starved, beaten little mite like Nixmarie or Marchella whose "parents" fed them nothing and abused and beat them to death. Get with the reality of New York's children, Bloomberg, you stupid, half-assed idiot and lay down the law where it really matters. It may take what you don;t have - balls, but it has to be done. I call on all our elected (and purchased their term) officials to start really looking at ACS and the poor little helpless victims of the stupidity and incompetence and total apathy of its employees and the taxpayer funded agencies that fail so miserably. You are a failure Bloomberg and the stolen voices of so many dead children echo this. Stick your fucking soda bans, cigarette and transfats and sodium obsessions up your ass until you come to grips with and address the real issues of importance in this city. If you can't handle that, then just go away.

Until There Is Silence No More

The Tenants Association and our councilman Dan Garodnick have mysteriously remained silent about a purported incident that occurred on July 12: the mugging by a group of individuals of someone right by Peter Cooper Village, along 20th Street.

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"We'll be introducing a new process to identify registered dogs thus enabling Public Safety Officers to clearly approach offending dog owners. The registration will hang from the leash handle; clearly identifying the dog as registered.

"If the dog is not registered by May 1; a summons will be issued at the point of contact. If we learn the dog owner is not a resident, they will be escorted off the property."

Rick Hayduk, CEO and General Manager of PCVST. Letter to Barry Shapiro, February 2016.

THINKING of Renting in PCVST?

Read Yelp reviews to find out what it's like living here. Please note: All apartments are currently "rent-stabilized" but that doesn't prevent apartments from going up to 4K to 6K a month and even higher. How does this happen? Ask our politicians! Fact: Now less than half of the complex's apartments have the old rents and it's getting worse year by year--or better if you are the Real Estate Board of New York!

The Other Yelp Reviews

Yelp can be tricky and bounce reviews for a variety of reasons, like being a member and posting just one review. Very often, however, these reviews hold important truths about what's being reviewed. READ THESE TOO.

BICYCLES, MOPEDS, SCOOTERS, ETC.

Of course, "private property" but "public access" - whatever that means! And if a part of it is public access, do the rules of the city apply to our roads and sidewalks? Or does anything give because this complex is "private property"? Who comes here in case of a fire in one of our buildings? The Stuy Town Fire Brigade?

Hint: Look both ways if you are in the complex. Look on the ground, too!

61.03 Control of dogs and other animals to prevent nuisance. (a) A person who owns, possesses or controls a dog, cat or other animal shall not permit the animal to commit a nuisance on a sidewalk of any public place, on a floor, wall, stairway, sidewalk, lawn, garden or roof of any public or private premises used in common by the public, or on a fence, wall [or], stairway or entranceway of a building abutting on a public place

Banned & Oversize Dog Breeds in Stuy Town

Looks like there is some difficulty in enforcing the ban on certain dog breeds allowed inside Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village. Somehow pitbulls and pitbull mixes have been registered in STPCV and are allowed to be freely walked about the grounds! Registered dogs in the complex are max 50 pounds. Total, if there is more than one! More than two, it's illegal. It's going to get worse, and, face it, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will never be like it once was.

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Read it and Weep

Current Value of ST/PCV

Was 5.4 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer bought the place.Became 1.7 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer left, with their tail between their legs. Of course, tenants now have to make up the loss.

Ex-landlord

Rob Speyer

1947 Stuy Town Plaque Honoring Met Life Chairman F.H. Ecker (Removed in 2002 and never seen again)

"... who with the vision of experience and the energy of youth conceived and brought into being this project, and others like it, that families of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in park-like communities and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service."

I am writing on behalf of everyone at Tishman Speyer to express how honored we are to become part of your outstanding community. We are a business with deep roots in New York, a true love of our city and a great respect for the neighborhoods that make it special. We are committed to maintaining the unique character and environment that have made Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town such a wonderful place to live for so long. We look forward to providing you an extraordinary level of service and attentiveness that will be the source of pride and satisfaction for the entire community.

Neighborhood Recommendations

New to Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village? Here are some basic recommendations.

Best supermarket: Associated on 14th St. between 1st Ave. and Ave A. The cheapest prices, fantastic weekly sales, very affordable lunches; solid, responsive management, but earthy. Some of the young female cashiers have attitude to spare, though. May be too far for Peter Cooper residents.

Best gym: Don't waste your money on the Oval Fitness Gym. Instead go to the earthy but real Asser Levy Recreational Center, right above 23rd St on Asser Levy Place (near the FDR Drive). $75 for a year's membership; seniors are almost free. Contains seasonal indoor and outdoor swimming pools, ping-pong table, two pool tables. Called by some rich people who wouldn't get caught going there "the prison gym," and you know why.

A Stuy Town favorite is Lenz's on 20 St. between the 20 St. Loop. The way New York used to be. Be careful of unwanted "pepper" in your food, however. Lenz's got a B grade rating and was temporarily closed down due to an order from the Health Department. Bruno's on First Avenue is more upscale, with a greater selection of food items (higher-priced, too), but was closed down temporarily by the Health Department. Stuy Town's own cafe was closed, too! And not because of all the dogs that hover and piss outside.

Gracefully has two locations, but we prefer for its size the one on 1st Ave. Prices are high and reflect the new tenants that are currently renting Stuy Town and Peter Cooper apartments. ("Do you have a credit card?") We like Gracefully's lunch specials, which are somewhat affordable.

I priced the CVS on 1st Ave near 14st. The non-aerosol hairspray was 20 cents above CVS' own website price, and one of the highest in NY. (Yes, I have hair.) You can save at least a dollar or more buying at another place. So beware. Look around for a better deal on all your items.

I love warm Quaker Oats in the morning. Gristedes is not the place to get it, nor is Associated, though their price is less. Look around!

Macular Degeneration Support Group

If you are currently diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary is offering a support group for you. Conveniently located next to the Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town apartment complex, our group offers the opportunity to share stories with other members, listen to expert guest speakers, and learn coping strategies to reduce stress. Our group runs on the first Wednesday of every month and we would enjoy seeing you there.
Please contact Baptiste Nicolas, Social Work Assistant at 212-979-4105 for further information and to see if this group is right for you!